By Josh Cass ~
In April 2021 my colleague Jonathan Smith and I convened a series of conversations that culminated in the publication of a new resource called, Working Together to Promote Freedom of Religion or Belief. This guide, which we co-authored for the Faith & Belief Forum, was made possible thanks to the support of our funder, Porticus, and is now freely available on our website. It joins a growing body of resources available for those working on, or commissioning work on the promotion or protection of FoRB. We were conscious of this literature and of the maturing practitioner-oriented landscape as we set out on this process, but were clear that there were gaps which we felt we could begin to meaningfully explore.
The Faith & Belief Forum, F&BF, is one of the UK’s largest interfaith education NGO’s. Established in 1997 as a space where leaders from the Abrahamic faith traditions could come together to discuss the pressing issues of the day, the organisation has changed and adapted to respond to the needs of the communities which it serves. Today, over 17,000 people go through our programmes each year; of those, over 10,000 are under the age of 16 and in full time education. As an organisation, we talk about taking a lived-faith approach to interfaith, so our programmes enable people, and in particular young people, to talk about how their faith or belief (including non-religious belief) shapes the way in which they live their lives.
This inclusive approach, grounded in the need to convene spaces in which all experiences are welcomed and no one form of knowledge is privileged, was central to how we conceived of the process which resulted in the publication of the resource. More critically however, we began the process which culminated in the production of this publication, by noting that there was a dearth of action-oriented material produced for the non-subject specialist. This to us felt like an important observation and one which went on to profoundly shape the final resource.
Creating a resource which was action-oriented to us meant ensuring that diverse voices, particularly those with experience of designing and delivering FoRB promoting or protecting initiatives, had to be included in the conversations. For this reason, we spent a great deal of time reaching out to partners and practitioners across the Global South and North to draw together a diverse selection of case studies. We were thrilled to be able to include practical case studies from countries as wide ranging as Nigeria, Lebanon, Indonesia, Myanmar, France, Kyrgyzstan, Cyprus and the UK. Additionally, it was important to have the involvement of academics, thinkers, and policy professionals, whose experiences and understanding of the issues were needed to begin to see the challenges related to FoRB programming in three dimensions so to speak. In this way, each conversation was shaped by the differing modalities of programmatic delivery which in turn respond to and address the varying contexts and challenges which those programmes were designed to respond to and within.
In writing the resource, we paid close attention to its format, making deliberate decisions to think about how to make it accessible to someone new to FoRB or FoRB programming. The result could appear simplistic, but this format really encourages the reader to ask critical questions and to see FoRB programming within a broader context; particularly in relation to how human rights more broadly might be perceived within a community, and how FoRB intersects with other Human Rights priorities.
Having said that, the resource is a living document and we do see it as having the potential to change over time. It has an important sign-posting function, enabling those working in this space to access more specialist resources and case studies in accordance with their needs. For that reason, we are really keen to hear about resources out there which we may have missed and we would be delighted to include them in the resource.
Finally, for us, the resource is a conversation starter. We are keen to talk to others in the field about the resource and to get their feedback. In conversations which we have had so far, the response has been extremely positive, and one idea which has emerged is to use the resource as a stepping off point for a country-specific conversation under the Chatham House Rule, in which a specially convened group might think about how the resource might be used to design FoRB interventions for that context.
We would love to hear what you think. I can be reached at josh@faithbeliefforum.org
Josh Cass is F&BF’s International Affairs and Fundraising Advisor. He is a founding member of the Forum for Religion and International Affairs and an experienced interfaith professional who has worked with organisations including: the UNAOC, OSCE/ODIHR, Fodip (Forum for Discussion of Israel and Palestine) and St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace.